Charlotte Schwab

Sex, Lies, and Rabbis: Breaking a Sacred Trust Charlotte Schwab

Sex, Lies, and Rabbis: Breaking a Sacred Trust by Charlotte Rolnick Schwab, Ph. D. is a powerful book, a combination of memoir and nonfiction, about what happens when clergy, specifically, rabbis, are deified. It is about the betrayal and the cover up of the betrayal of teen aged girls and women by male rabbis, and thereby, the betrayal of these rabbis' wives, families, congregations, communities, denominations, and all Judaism. Two murders are connected to rabbis' sexual abuse. One rabbi is awaiting retrial for allegedly hiring a hit man to murder his wife because of his sexual misconduct. This author writes about her own frightening, shocking experience as the wife of a rabbi-perpetrator of sexual abuse of other women, his violence toward her, and threat to kill her if she told about his nefarious double life. The book delineates in one volume: the crisis in the rabbinate, in congregational Judaism; what needs to be done to bring about healing and change; gives description of cases of rabbis' sexual abuse as told to the author (these cases are all composites; the victims/survivors' identities are disguised), and as reported in the media, including the two murders related to rabbis' sexual abuse; the alarming extent of this problem; outlines policies that synagogues and denominations need to adopt; provides definitions of sexual abuse; discusses the kinds of personalities of rabbis which can lead to rabbis becoming sexual predators; and offers some suggestions for prevention. The book offers a Resources List and extensive Bibliography, including articles from Jewish and secular newspapers around the country, about rabbis' sexual abuse. The book provides a healing program geared toward Jewish victims/survivors or rabbis' sexual abuse; it can be adapted for victims/survivors of abuse by other clergy and of other kinds of abuse, including abuse by batterers. Women who suffered abuse of any kind will find this book validating and helpful for healing and recovery. '12 Stepp